Telecom Egypt has taken significant strides towards launching the country’s first 5G services, marking a new era in telecommunications for Egypt. This week, the company announced a landmark agreement with Nokia, involving the deployment of 5G RAN equipment across key Egyptian cities.
The deal covers Nokia’s AirScale portfolio, which includes cutting-edge baseband units and the latest Massive MIMO radios. These deployments will commence later this year in Alexandria, Aswan, Cairo, Giza, and Luxor. More extensive implementations are expected to follow shortly.
Financial specifics of the agreement remain undisclosed. Mohamed Al Fowey, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Telecom Egypt, highlighted the significance of this deal: “This new agreement with Nokia further strengthens our strong partnership, reaffirms our commitment to providing cutting-edge digital services, and positions us at the forefront of the 5G revolution. Both our consumer and enterprise customers can look forward to enhanced mobile broadband and exciting new applications that leverage the speed and low latency of 5G technology.”
Currently, Telecom Egypt holds the unique position as the only Egyptian operator licensed to offer 5G services, having secured the sole spectrum license from the national regulator earlier this year. Since obtaining the license, Telecom Egypt has been conducting 5G tests with several major vendors, including both Nokia and Ericsson.
The regulator’s unexpected decision not to auction multiple licenses, diverging from the common practice in most countries, surprised industry analysts. A competitive auction involving all four of the country’s operators had been anticipated. As of now, the regulator’s future plans concerning 5G licenses for Telecom Egypt’s competitors, such as Orange Egypt, Vodafone Egypt, and Etisalat Egypt, remain unclear.
